My trip to Vietnam (loooooong post)

Bad ass! I was going to text you and ask you about your trip. Thanks for sharing! Some great pictures in there.

Very cool!  Thanks for posting the awesome pics - looks like you had a great time!

Thank you for sharing your great experience.  Vietnam is one of the countries I want to visit in the future.

Paul

I had to pause on the posting, there is much more to share since I was there an entire month Had some technical issues with photos and then went to visit my father and tell him about my trip as well.

something for me to read for the jetlag.  Happy new year from Vietnam!

Happy New Year Bob!

Al that looks like a great trip! Do you speak the language at all? Did you have any issues communicating or finding your way? I’ve done a few trips where my language skills were limited, but was lucky enough that people were friendly and patient with me to the point where I was able to get by.

I only learned basic greetings, food's, thank you, NO and that saying Oi! is universally funny when something surprised me. In Saigon and Hanoi (coming up) there is a lot of English speaking people in most popular places like hotels and restaurants.  But in rural areas not as much, but still a few and people were very patient. I would use Google Translate to ask small questions, use it to translate the menu for ordering food, and a calculator to just have them tell me what the food cost was.  To get around places using the ride share service Grab had some translation built in the app that helped when you needed to give instruction to be picked up to the driver like in a busy airport.

Very cool Al!!
Love the food porn and stories
I'll take seconds

Probably took more food pics than anything haha.  The food is out of this world, I wish I could eat like that every day.  So many many good things to eat everywhere you go.  Beverages might deserve their own category as well, there's no end of different drinks to try wherever you go.

Looks like a great trip. Did you fish?

I did try a little bit and have a post i'll do just on that.

Bad ass! I was going to text you and ask you about your trip. Thanks for sharing! Some great pictures in there.

You especially I wanted to do this post for and anyone that isn't on Facebook that didn't already see much of this stuff posted there.  Glad your enjoying it!


To everyone else, thanks for the kind replies I hope you enjoy the rest of the story...

did you try that breakfast beer?  super low alcohol, and super fresh?

More food pictures please  .
Did you try my 2 favorite dishes Bún Bò Huế & ốc len xào dừa?

did you try that breakfast beer?  super low alcohol, and super fresh?

I actually learned about it after I returned from the trip and was sad I didn't know about it when I visited Hanoi.  Fresh brewed and delivered to places daily and served in a special recycled glass mug.  Really hope to try it someday but I don't really want to spend a lot of time in Hanoi, as it's air pollution is really hard on me.

More food pictures please  .
Did you try my 2 favorite dishes Bún Bò Huế & ốc len xào dừa?

For sure sunny!  Bun Bo Hue is incredible!  Can't believe I never tried it before!  I didn't get to try the turbin snails, although they were on my to-eat-list, they were out at the one snail spot I tried.  They were sold at all the markets though if I wanted to try cooking them myself 

did you try that breakfast beer?  super low alcohol, and super fresh?

I actually learned about it after I returned from the trip and was sad I didn't know about it when I visited Hanoi.  Fresh brewed and delivered to places daily and served in a special recycled glass mug.  Really hope to try it someday but I don't really want to spend a lot of time in Hanoi, as it's air pollution is really hard on me.

More food pictures please  .
Did you try my 2 favorite dishes Bún Bò Huế & ốc len xào dừa?

For sure sunny!  Bun Bo Hue is incredible!  Can't believe I never tried it before!  I didn't get to try the turbin snails, although they were on my to-eat-list, they were out at the one snail spot I tried.  They were sold at all the markets though if I wanted to try cooking them myself 

I know a place here in San Jose that serves great ốc len xào dừa dish.  I will take you there someday.

Whoa that's awesome, haven't done any serious traveling since I was younger.  Way to get out there Al and looking forward to reading about the rest of your trip. Also noticed your posts had slowed down a bit...glad your back!

From Dak Lak I flew to the North of Vietnam to visit Hanoi (the land between rivers), the Capitol of Vietnam.  Like a lot of Vietnam the architecture is quite unique, and in Hanoi it's even more evident being that the city is over a thousand years old. It's a bustling city with a vibe like San Francisco gives me, cooler than in the south of the country as well.  Unfortunately the air quality is really terrible in the city, and the harsh air was hard to breathe at times for me.  The food is a bit different as well, the North and South sort of have their own takes on the same dishes as well as they have regional favorites.  For Hanoi my food research told me to try the Pho?, which was defintly the best I had in my time there.  The Egg Coffee, which during a shortage of milk became a replacement for Lattes and such by whipping eggs and sugar into a foam, tastes just like a marshmallow to me.  And the roasted duck, which was definitely the best roast duck I have ever had in my life.

I went to the Old Quarter and did the train street experience, where you can sit at a bar or restaurant that has a train track going right down the middle of it literally inches away from your table.  It's quite a scene with so many many tourists, beautiful lanterns and lights, and old buildings.  I also visited the Capitol and the mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh, the resting place of the great leader and President.  The latter being quite a formal affair with hundreds of people there to visit and see his body on display and pay your respects to.

I visited the Hoan Kiem Lake which has an interesting legend of “the lake of the returned sword”, with a temple on a small island you can cross the bridge and visit with some nice views of the lake and surrounding area and a lot of beautiful art and statues (and some giant stuffed turtles).

In Hanoi there is a specialty snack or desert made of young rice, that is green and pounded and has a sweet flavor and chewy.  If I ran across one of the sweet old ladies that was selling this I couldn't help but buy it and down it right there, or save it for later as a snack.

Took a tour bus from Hanoi to Nimh Binh a few hours away to explore the beautiful country side of the North.  Truly the most beautiful spot that I visited in the time I spent there with big beautiful hills, mountains and water all over country side.  The tour took us to the old capitol of Vietnam, Hoa Lu, with some beautiful old buildings and places of worship.  Very serene and beautiful everywhere you looked. The guide told of how there are goats through out the region and made for some delicious dishes.  Sure enough you could see goats on the tops of the hills everywhere I went, and for lunch having the goat porridge was very good.

After the capitol we went to the river in Tam Coc, Ngo Dong where they have a boat tour that takes you through a breath taking mountain water way, surrounded by Buddhist temples along the water and on top of the cliffs, and many burial sites as well.  Along the route there are people working to cultivate the land, fish the water ways and live in pristine beauty of this area.  The boats are pretty interesting as they are flat bottomed and very maneuverable, propelled by the rowers feet at most times.  Along the way were spots you could get out and take a break, even some places that sold beverages right along the waters edge. You could have your boat go up to one and get a beer, or coffee if you liked.  The name Tam Coc means three caves, and the tour takes you under all three during the journey, and the caves are lighted so you can see as you pass through them.